Willie and Paulette Strickland made it back safely a few days ago and it was such a blessing to see and catch up with them! Their return also means it´s time to start making transitions in the ministry.
The ministry will be relocating to a more central village in order to raise up and train national pastors and leaders to plant and grow their own churches in at least five different villages. Right now our location is pretty far up river, with the nearest village being 30 minutes away, and the second closest village being 2 hours away.
As a result, the team will be heading to the jungle on Sunday to start surveying land for the move. I believe right now they have 3 or 4 different locations to check on.
I will be staying behind because Kelsey Cameron flies in on Dec. 18th to spend 3 weeks with us! Her and I will be heading into the jungle by launcha to meet up with the team and spend a week or so with them before coming back to Iquitos.
The only stipulation Nelton has on me is that I must find a malaria pill that is safe for pregnant women to take. Upon returning to the States, our friend Bob Mitchell, who helps down here a good portion of the year, discovered he had two different types of malaria. So he is more worried than he was before. In case you don´t know, the high fevers and chills that come with Malaria are extremely dangerous for a pregnant woman. Most of the time her baby will be miscarried, born prematurely, or she will have a stillbirth.
Plus Nelton told me that the first time you have malaria, it feels like you are slowly dying. I already feel like that most of the day in the heat! So I agree that I need something.
I did some research online and the one thing I found was that the best thing for pregnant women is to avoid traveling to malaria infested parts of the world at all costs. Ohh. That´s good to know. But I did find a type of prevention medicine that will work for me, now I just have to locate the pills.
Well, that´s about all for now. I am very excited for the arrival of Kelsey! It´s the best Christmas present I could ask for!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The Days of Our Lives
Just a little update on our lives, although nothing extremely dramatic or out of the ordinary has been happening.
I think I might slowly be pulling out of the morning-all day sickness phase of pregnancy; or at least I´m not down on a regular basis like I was. I still have my spouts, and eating still feels like a chore. I dread mealtime, only because there rarely is anything that sounds good to me. On top of that, I don´t always know how much to eat. If I don´t eat enough, I feel like throwing up. If I eat too much, I feel sick for a few hours. It´s a learning process.
The major things I´ve been craving still fall in the U.S.of A. category, such as my grandma´s sisilian hot dish, a double cheese burger (specifically from Burger King), breadsticks from Pizza hut, biscuits and gravey from Hardees, Chicken cordon bleu SDR Style, blueberry muffins, cinnemon rolls, and toaster struddles by pillsberry. One common theme... CARBS!!! The worst thing is we have cable, so adds will come up for some of these things (BK or Pizza Hut), but there isn´t such a place for MILES!!!
I am really looking forward to Friday, as Willie and Paulette will be coming back and I´ll be able to catch up and practice my English. =)
Then in the middle of the month my dear friend Kelsey Cameron will be coming for close to three weeks! I am extremely excited as we are planning on heading back to the jungle, which will be the first time I´ve been back since before the wedding.
Nelton has been doing great. He goes out and works in the mornings, comes back to spend lunch and siesta with me, then goes back to work until the evening. He usually brings me out on the motorcycle so that I can get some fresh air before turning in for the night.
As for the heat, it´s still a beast. We don´t get hot water, which is a mixed blessing. It´s been months since I´ve had a hot shower, but it sure is nice at mid-day when the heat is anything but a treat.
As difficult as this little chapter has been of being physically out of it, it has been a blessing. I was thinking about it the other day and it really has been a good way to start our marriage. It has given us a great chance to bond and build our lives together as one. We do love being married and I couldn´t be more thankful for Nelton. I do fall more in love with him everyday. We tend to have fun too, making each other laugh in the little things. It´s great.
As for visa progress... I´m progressing. As for him, we started on the first step, which is on the way to the States for mom to send in. But I had some questions on step two of the K-3 non-immigrant visa. In my reseach and searching for someone who can help me, I was recommended to Terri Reynolds. After sharing our situation with her, she recommended that we look into a different direction. So we are now in the process of finding out which visa we should really go with. The non-immigrant apparently requires some things we are unable to provide, including living in the States for an extensive period, and my earning $18,000 yearly to support my foriegn husband. Well, that is completely out of the question! We don´t earn anything close to that!
So we are looking into the tourist visa, which is apparently granted for 10 years, with 3 months per visit. The only problem is on the first visit, we need about 7 months, unless we decide to have the baby here. Reason being, after having the baby in June, we will be attending the training center for International Messengers in Montanna, which is four months and starts in Aug.
This week for the first time Nelton said he would be fine with having the baby here. I had been before, but kinda got set on the States. So who knows?
Well, that´s a peak into some of the things going on here.
I think I might slowly be pulling out of the morning-all day sickness phase of pregnancy; or at least I´m not down on a regular basis like I was. I still have my spouts, and eating still feels like a chore. I dread mealtime, only because there rarely is anything that sounds good to me. On top of that, I don´t always know how much to eat. If I don´t eat enough, I feel like throwing up. If I eat too much, I feel sick for a few hours. It´s a learning process.
The major things I´ve been craving still fall in the U.S.of A. category, such as my grandma´s sisilian hot dish, a double cheese burger (specifically from Burger King), breadsticks from Pizza hut, biscuits and gravey from Hardees, Chicken cordon bleu SDR Style, blueberry muffins, cinnemon rolls, and toaster struddles by pillsberry. One common theme... CARBS!!! The worst thing is we have cable, so adds will come up for some of these things (BK or Pizza Hut), but there isn´t such a place for MILES!!!
I am really looking forward to Friday, as Willie and Paulette will be coming back and I´ll be able to catch up and practice my English. =)
Then in the middle of the month my dear friend Kelsey Cameron will be coming for close to three weeks! I am extremely excited as we are planning on heading back to the jungle, which will be the first time I´ve been back since before the wedding.
Nelton has been doing great. He goes out and works in the mornings, comes back to spend lunch and siesta with me, then goes back to work until the evening. He usually brings me out on the motorcycle so that I can get some fresh air before turning in for the night.
As for the heat, it´s still a beast. We don´t get hot water, which is a mixed blessing. It´s been months since I´ve had a hot shower, but it sure is nice at mid-day when the heat is anything but a treat.
As difficult as this little chapter has been of being physically out of it, it has been a blessing. I was thinking about it the other day and it really has been a good way to start our marriage. It has given us a great chance to bond and build our lives together as one. We do love being married and I couldn´t be more thankful for Nelton. I do fall more in love with him everyday. We tend to have fun too, making each other laugh in the little things. It´s great.
As for visa progress... I´m progressing. As for him, we started on the first step, which is on the way to the States for mom to send in. But I had some questions on step two of the K-3 non-immigrant visa. In my reseach and searching for someone who can help me, I was recommended to Terri Reynolds. After sharing our situation with her, she recommended that we look into a different direction. So we are now in the process of finding out which visa we should really go with. The non-immigrant apparently requires some things we are unable to provide, including living in the States for an extensive period, and my earning $18,000 yearly to support my foriegn husband. Well, that is completely out of the question! We don´t earn anything close to that!
So we are looking into the tourist visa, which is apparently granted for 10 years, with 3 months per visit. The only problem is on the first visit, we need about 7 months, unless we decide to have the baby here. Reason being, after having the baby in June, we will be attending the training center for International Messengers in Montanna, which is four months and starts in Aug.
This week for the first time Nelton said he would be fine with having the baby here. I had been before, but kinda got set on the States. So who knows?
Well, that´s a peak into some of the things going on here.
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